• Oct. 9, 2006
Happy Autumn!! Crafty Ideas
Ahh its that special time of year. Its time to begin to gather some of my autumn lessons and ideas. While gathering my thoughts I was thinking it might help me to post all my ideas here so that they are all together and that others might want to share in the joy of Autumn with us. To me this is the best time of year. The smell in the air , apple cider, pumpkins and scarecrows. I am thinking this year about having a fall foliage festival. If all goes well with my children I may incoorporate it into our activites at Co-op. So as I wait for the leaves to change more, here are some ideas.
1. Paper towel leaf painting- Cut a white paper towel the shape of a leaf. Put the towel onto wax paper. Then drop food coloring on with a dropper. They turn out beautiful and look amazing stuck to the window. I have also used a paintbrush to drop the paint but watch out for the little ones . They try to rub it around and then tear the paper towel.
2. Nature walk- It wouldnt be fall if we didnt go on a nature walk. Bringing those nature journals along and taking the afternoon to explore all the changes. We also collect things that we see that have fallen. My children are only allowed to collect things that have fallen. If its still attached they arent to pick it they are to draw it. Then we go back and look up the different flowers, leaves, and nuts we found. So we can have fun and learn a little about them too.
3. Leaf pictures and book markers- This craft I did with my kids long ago. So I dont think the little ones have had a chance yet to try it. So this year we are going to do it again. I cut paper grocery bags into bookmark shape or the size of a picture frame. You could make fall cards too. Then we used Clear contact paper like you use in your kitchen cabinets. This is an easy way to laminate. These bookmarkers lasted us a long time before they began to turn brown. I am not sure I didnt even throw them away and they still werent brown after a year. You want to contact the leaf inside with the paper and cover it solid trimming the edges. You could also use some leaf punches if you are into scrapbooking or stamps.
4. Math Acrons- I take advantage of all those acorns the kids bring in. We use them for math practices. Also for my little one I cut out a squirrel shape. Wrote a number on each squirrel then had the little ones feed that many to the squirrel. We have also used Cheerios since acorns can get wormy.
5. Pumpkin seeds- We will probably also make a fall decoration for our table. Cutting a pumpkin and scrapping out the inside. There is also a bible lesson in there about how something appears to be on the outside or a person appears to be and how it really is. We will roast the seeds . Some we will dry for a pumpkin counting books (since I mentioned them I will tell you about them at the bottom) or for math practices for the younger again. We will add a mum to the inside and some leaves we found.
Pumpkin seed books- I cut out the shape of a pumpkin (11) We write the numbers 1-10 . Add that many seeds to the page and white yarn strips about an in long. The yarn represents the stringy stuff in the pumpkin. Continue to do this on all the pages.
Once we make all of these things I will post pictures so check back near the end of Oct. When the leaves around here really begin to change. Please post some of your Ideas. It would be great to have more ideas that I can count on working and the kids enjoying. Happy fall ya'll.
